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Diane's Diary5/1 Wednesday I volunteered to teach at the school this morning. I had done it last year & found it very rewarding. We had a busload of volunteers now so that was very uplifting. The work with the kids can be very frustrating though as most of them don't seem to care about education & it certainly is not stressed in their homes. Alpha Canvas came over to make a template of the mattresses while I was gone so that meant Larry had to remove everything from the aft cabin & then return it after they left. I was still feeling ill with my migraine headache when I came back from teaching so I just did some emails & sewed for the rest of the afternoon. I bought a sewing machine from GWW. Since they are leaving the Caribbean, they no longer need it. There are a lot of sewing projects I am going to try & do. I even want to see if I can make some more tank tops for myself. When we leave the Caribbean next year, I will try & sell the machine in St. Martin before we go. I know it will be very easy to sell. I wish it were a canvas machine but at $40USD for a 5year old Singer sewing machine I can't complain. I just wish she had the instruction booklet. 5/2 Thursday I went to the pay phone to make some more phone calls this morning- we are trying to set up doctors appointments. At 10:30, Larry & I took the maxi bus to West Mall to get some haircuts & buy things. We left the mall at 2pm after we dropped $100USD. We got our haircuts for about $12USD for both of us including the tip, went to McDonalds for lunch (cheaper than the US for the same food!), Larry bought a coffee press he has been wanting, got some cards, T shirts, & boat parts etc. We got back to the boat around 2:30 & took a swim & shower & made a dish for the potluck. We went to the Crews Inn potluck at 6pm. We like to go every week since we are not allowed to grill at the dock. 5/3 Friday Rain! We have been getting lots of rain even though this is supposed to be the dry season. Wonder what the wet season will be like if we are getting so much rain now? Anyway, I had a sink load of dishes to do in the am. Then I made baked ziti & a key lime pie for this evening. We are having GWW over for dinner to say goodbye. We wanted to have them over at night, but they don't want to leave when it's dark as most of the crime happens then, so they will come at 3pm & leave before it gets dark. We have enjoyed getting to know them & will definitely miss them. We wish them lots of happiness in their new lives. I think it will be a difficult adjustment after living in the Caribbean on a boat for 8 years. I wonder how we will adjust going back next year especially since we need to go back to work. Well, we'll worry about that when the time comes. Anyway, Alpha Canvas called & said they would bring the new mattresses over when it stopped raining out. So, we stripped the cabins & put everything in the main cabin awaiting their arrival. However, they still did not come by 2:30 & GWW was coming at 3pm so we told Alpha not to deliver them & will get them either Monday or Tuesday. I was looking forward to having the new mattresses also. Our old ones are really hurting our backs. Oh well, I guess a few more days won't make a difference. Anyway, we had a good time with GWW & will really miss them. We first met them in St. Martin when we first started cruising almost 1.5 years ago. 5/4 Saturday I did some laundry in the am. I had about 2 loads plus some clothes including some that needed to be bleached. It took several hours to do. I also worked on fixing the curtains in the pm- they all needed to be altered. After I finish that, I am going to sew slipcovers for the settee cushions. I tried to make one as an experiment & it worked so I will do the rest after I get some more material. I will make 2 sets so they will be covered at all times. At 4:30pm, I went to the gym & walked on the treadmill for almost an hour. I would like to lose a few pounds. I made a wonderful shrimp dish for dinner with sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese, and artichokes hearts. It really came out good. 5/5 Sunday More rain! Actually, it's supposed to rain for the next several days. It just stops & starts all day long. We met S/V Aryil for breakfast at Tropical Marine - $6USD each for a Bloody Mary & eggs benedict. The eggs were good but they needed to serve something with it like hash browns or French fries. I didn't taste any vodka in my drink at all. But we had a good time catching up with Aryil - they are coming on the Angostura Bitters tour tomorrow. We met them at 9:30 & got back to the boat around 11:30. We had to walk back between rain bursts as it has been raining on & off all day. After lunch, I caught up with my logs & Larry worked on the website. 5/6 Monday We went on a tour today to Angostura Bitters & rum factory & a pan yard factory. The whole tour including transport, both factories, & lunch was about $20USD per person. Had I not been able to get the local rate for the Angostura tour, the price would have increased by almost $8USD per person. We enjoyed both tours very much. It was very interesting to hear how they make a pan instrument. As we all know, Trinidad is THE place in the world to hear pan. I was surprised to learn a good pan can cost over $300USD & takes several weeks to make. Next, we got to Angostura around 11am. Unfortunately, our tour didn't start until 1pm but it did give us time to eat lunch & go to the gift shop. The prices in the gift shop were very affordable - $5USD for an embroidered T-shirt, & $12 for an embroidered golf shirt. We rarely buy any souvenirs down here so we purchased a few things. The tour was wonderful. Trinidad is the only country in the world where Angostura Bitters is produced & the recipe is a secret. They had a wonderful film & a beautiful museum that unfortunately they didn't give us much time to see. They even drove us around the huge complex in an electrical trolley like they have in Disney World. We were all surprised at how modern the factory was, & everyone seemed to really enjoy the tour. But the best part was the free sampling of all their products - we all liked that part the best! We got back to the boats around 4pm. 5/7 Tuesday Well, we got our new mattresses for the boat today. They seem very hard & will take getting used too. Our old ones were just bothering our backs. We got 5-inch foam with two types of foam, very hard followed by soft. With the extra foam pad we have on the bed, hopefully this will improve both our back problems. Larry had a doctor's appointment in Port of Spain so we went shortly after the mattresses were delivered. He needed some lab work done & luckily, we were able to have it done right away. The doctor's visit was only $25USD. When was the last time a doctor in the US charged that price? All doctors in Trinidad take cash only so we were fortunate that we had enough on us for the visit & lab test. None of the doctor's takes a charge card though. 5/7 Wednesday We had to go to the dentist today so decided to go into Port of Spain first to get some fabric so I can make slipcovers. We found a beautiful light blue sailboat pattern we both liked. I bought 7 yards but this may not be enough. Afterwards we went to the dentist. For about $65 USD we both had an exam & had our teeth cleaned. We ate lunch in the mall & walked around for a while. When we came back, we went to the internet café so we could order flowers for Mom & Aunt Mary for Mother's Day & Mom's birthday. 5/8 Thursday This morning I made tortilla pinwheels for our special Mother's Day potluck here at Crew's Inn. I washed the bimini & Larry cleaned the stainless steel on the awning. I sprayed the new mattresses with 303 waterproofing material. It's very expensive at almost $50USD for a gallon but Practical Sailor magazine rated it the best among all waterproofing material. We invited S/V Sweet Lou to come over at 5pm for drinks before the CI party started. They are from our yacht club back home & we hadn't seen them since St. Martin last year. We all went to the wonderful Mother's Day party given by CI. They had a fashion show, Latin dancing, & a singer. They even brought some chicken & had French fries. They gave out gift baskets to all Mother's that consisted of a Foster beer & new Rush beverage by Angostura Bitters. All had a good time. 5/9 Friday I went on the free shopping bus to the supermarket this morning. When I came back, I put some more 303 waterproofing on the mattresses & did some emails. I went to the gym & walked 55 minutes on the treadmill. 5/10 Saturday I put some more waterproofing on the canvas. We got our awning back from Alpha Canvas as it had gone in for some minor repairs. We put it back up & the repairs seemed to work well. I cooked some Italian sausages, wrote a letter to Citibank (another cruiser going back to the US will mail it for me) & did some emails. I did some sewing this afternoon- some of the curtains needed some repairs. Today was Mom's birthday so we called her. She seemed glad to hear from us & liked the flowers we sent her. 5/11 Sunday I did some emails & updated my logs in the morning. In the afternoon, we played dominos. They play dominos every Sunday afternoon here at CI but we have never played before. Larry wanted to learn so off we went. I would have rather work on my logs & exercise but I went with him, as he wanted me to go. I was not crazy about it but I know a lot of people are. It lasted from 1 to almost 5pm. It was too late then to exercise so I just went in the pool. We spent a quiet evening at home watching TV. We know we won't have any TV when we leave he until we get back to the US so we are watching it a lot. Funny, when we are at anchor we don't even miss it but when you have it you just put it on. |